The Akademik Sergey Korolyov (russian: Академик Сергей Королёв) was a space control-monitoring ship or Vigilship (Veladora) constructed in 1970 to support the

Soviet space program The Soviet space program (russian: Космическая программа СССР, Kosmicheskaya programma SSSR) was the national space program of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), active from 1955 until the dissoluti ...

. Named after

Sergey Korolyov Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (russian: Сергей Павлович Королёв, Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov, sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪtɕ kərɐˈlʲɵf, Ru-Sergei Pavlovich Korolev.ogg; ukr, Сергій Павлович Корольов, ...

, the head Soviet rocket engineer and designer during the

Space Race The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the t ...

between the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

in the 1950s and 1960s, the ship also conducted

upper atmosphere Upper atmosphere is a collective term that refers to various layers of the atmosphere of the Earth above the troposphere and corresponding regions of the atmospheres of other planets, and includes: * The mesosphere, which on Earth lies between th ...

and

outer space Outer space, commonly shortened to space, is the expanse that exists beyond Earth and its atmosphere and between celestial bodies. Outer space is not completely empty—it is a near-perfect vacuum containing a low density of particles, pred ...

research.Norman Polmar, ''Guide to the Soviet Navy'', Fourth Edition (1986), United States Naval Institute, Annapolis Maryland, In Soviet times, the ''Akademik Sergey Korolyov'' was a large communications ship which was part of a fleet of communications ships. These ships greatly extended the tracking range when the orbits of cosmonauts and unmanned missions were not within range of Soviet land-based tracking stations.''Tracking sites and ships''
Komsmonavtka Website
Retrieved 6/13/2008 The ship mainly operated in the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

monitoring spacecraft trajectory,

telemetry Telemetry is the in situ collection of measurements or other data at remote points and their automatic transmission to receiving equipment (telecommunication) for monitoring. The word is derived from the Greek roots ''tele'', "remote", an ...

data, and guaranteed a communications link with the

cosmonauts An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

.Askar, ''Research ship Akademik Sergey Korolev'' (2006),
Online
Accessed 6/14/2008 The ship had about 1200 accommodations, including 79 laboratories, in which 188 scientific workers performed their duties. In 1975, the ship was a part of the Soviet-American

Apollo–Soyuz Apollo–Soyuz was the first crewed international space mission, carried out jointly by the United States and the Soviet Union in July 1975. Millions of people around the world watched on television as a United States Apollo spacecraft docked ...

joint test program.''SP-4209 The Partnership: A History of the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project'', (U.S.) NASA
Online Article
/ref> Sold for scrapping and renamed OROL, arriving at

Alang Alang is a census town in Bhavnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Because it is home to the Alang Ship Breaking Yard, Alang beaches are considered the world's largest ship graveyard. Demographics As of the 2001 Indian census, Al ...

on 18 August 1996

References

External links

* A. Karpenko, ''ABM and Space Defense'', Nevsky Bastion, No. 4, 1999, pp. 2–47
Federation of American Scientists (Online)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akademik Auxiliary ships of the Soviet Navy Maritime vessels related to spaceflight Ships of the Soviet space program Ships built at the Black Sea Shipyard Sergei Korolev 1970 ships Ships built in the Soviet Union

See also

References

External links